7 users commented in " Tug of war accident "

Not me. That is something which the juniors will learn well….when you have several tons of strong men pulling on a rope, don’t wrap it around your hands.

And, I’m not really sure about your claim that the rope could sever limbs if it broke. That seems to be highly unlikely. I don’t think that people could put enough force on the rope to break it if it were in good condition, and, if not in good condition, the force used would seem unlikely to be enough to snap with that kind of velocity. Maybe, but I’m very skeptical.

Here is a portion of a medical report from a “massive tug of war” accident that happened when a professor arranged a tug of war between two large teams to recreate a historical event. The rope snapped and the resulting injuries included those from falling and these injuries from the rope backlash:

…Among them, five men were severely injured, including two men with left upper arm amputations, one man with a wrist fracture, and one man with a right hand amputation from the web space be tween the first and second digits. The most devastating injury, described in this report, comprised liver and spleen rupture with C5-6 spinal cord injury as the initial presentations. A bilateral brachial plexus injury was also found in the subsequent investigation.

This is extreme I admit, but severe rope burn from rope backlash is common from these events when the rope breaks, as well as eyes injured from the rope whipping around, etc.

Now, in researching this I discovered that many places sell “non-backlash” ropes specifically for tug of war, so perhaps that has changed things somewhat. I assume such ropes are designed to have very limited elasticity so they cannot store all the energy.

We actually studied this in my physics class. One of the problems we worked out was the reaction to a rope of certain strength, with certain elasticity under enough strain to break it. The energy released is quite significant, and it has to go somewhere.

Drax said,

in October 13th, 2007 at 11:39 am

Those are some serious injuries!

This is a matter of intellect, not the game itself. Clearly, football and even baseball are much more dangerous sports if they are not played with the proper equipment and training.

These guys just got up and, without putting any thought into it, without their teacher (coach?) telling them not to put themselves in danger, did the ONE thing which any thinking person would know not to do.

These are kids, I know. But, how hard is it to tell them “don’t wrap the rope around any portion of your body”? It’s along the lines of “Don’t forget your pads and helmet” when going out to play football.

Instead, what we get is yet another game which will likely be removed from our children’s lives due to the failure of the teacher (coach?) to properly instruct the kids and the kids’ (almost grown) inability to think about the possible consequences of wrapping their body parts in a rope which is being pulled upon from both directions by strong, young athletes.

Pretty soon, unless we start growing a pair, all the kids will be left with is tiddley winks….until someone gets hit in the eye….

I don’t want to see tug of war removed from school, my point was that tug of war actually had a history of serious injuries where dodge ball mostly does not. A broken arm doesn’t really compare to a lost arm. Yet dodge ball has been banned all over the place.

Clearly these kids should have been told not to wrap the rope around their arms. Hopefully this will remind coaches and teachers across the country that such injuries are possible. I hope the kids injured get the best medical help possible and the damage is repaired as much as possible.

By the way, I saw a report the other day that for high school and college sports, cheerleading led football, baseball and, presumably, dodgeball, in serious injuries and death around the nation.

Yep, cheerleading.

Drax said,

in October 13th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

I certainly can believe that about the cheerleading. It isn’t what it was when we were growing up. They are all aspiring gymnists with no mat to fall upon….

I believe that the kids should be taught safety when playing the game of tug of war. I teach students to ride horses and the first lesson is leading a horse. Included in the first lesson is never to wrap the rope around any body part or yourself when leading a horse. Maybe just a quick instruction before the tug of war. Know one of the kids who got hurt at the school and hate to see anyone else hurt like he was.